Name: Couperin and Purcell
Start: 2027-05-09T15:00:00
Location: Downtown Ithaca Alliance (The Ithaca Commons)

Cayuga Chamber Orchestra

Nielsen and Fauré

Downtown Ithaca Alliance (The Ithaca Commons)

There is nothing quite like witnessing young people finding joy in music. This afternoon, we have the added pleasure of making music with them. Please join us in welcoming the musicians of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra Youth Orchestra, the Ithaca High School Chorale, and the Lee Strebel Memorial Youth Concerto Competition winners. Whether on stage or in the audience, this concert is a celebration of our community and of the young artists who represent its present and future.

Side-by-Side with CCOYO and IHS Chorale

Ithaca College

Prokofiev and Beethoven

Gabriela Lena Frank opens with Escaramuza—not the Mexican equestrian display, but a kachampa, the athletic warrior dance of the Peruvian Andes. Our concertmaster, Christina Bouey, joins us for Astor Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, Astor’s answer to Antonio Vivaldi. The Sinfonietta reveals another side of Piazzolla’s genius, and, as with Aaron Copland, one senses behind his assurance in the orchestral medium the encouraging presence of Nadia Boulanger. Manuel de Falla—or simply Falla, as his friends called him—closes the evening with flamenco, farce, and fury. All of this under the masterful baton of the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra chief conductor David Hayes.

¡Bailemos!

Miri Yampolsky—one of the great pianists of her generation and, how fortunate we are, an Ithacan—joins us for Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, a singular masterpiece. From its hushed opening to its extraordinary second movement, where sensibility responds to authority, and on to its delightful final Rondo, the work reveals Beethoven at his most inventive and profound. The Cayuga Chamber Orchestra also has the honor of giving the world premiere of a new work by Loren Loiacono, continuing our commitment to standing at the forefront of new creation. Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, with its haunting Allegretto framed by music of irrepressible exuberance, brings our 50th season to a fitting close.